Never Again
by Baxter54132
Summary: Tenten finds Neji, torn up and on the verge of death. She quickly takes him back to Konoha, starting to realize her true feelings for the shinobi. Will her hope help him pull through? NejiTen One-shot


Randomly picked pairing off of the list on flipomatic's profile page, number three, NejiTen. Flip is watching Beauty and the Beast next to me, and it is really distracting. I asked her to turn her volume down so I could write.

I hope you all enjoy this one-shot.

Takes place after the Sasuke retrieval arc.

Disclaimer: NejiTen is not mine, and neither is Naruto, how unfortunate…

NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen

The room is quiet, the only noise being the tapping of her foot, which echoes off the white walls a few times before fading. Two dim bulbs light the room, coupled with a red sign at the end of the room. This sign is of a needle, and is lit up brightly. Long benches sit on the long sides of the room, mostly unoccupied. Only one girl sits, her head between her hands.

"Neji…" she mutters under her breath as she recalls on events that took place earlier that day.

_Flashback (Please Note: Tenten is thinking this as you are reading it)_

_Tenten ran through the trees, looking around for any sign of the Sasuke retrieval team. They had been sent out just yesterday, and word had come back that most of them had been defeated._

_Hinata Hyuuga appeared at Tenten's side, a worried expression on her face as she looked around with her byakugan activated._

_Suddenly, Hinata gasped and her running slowed. Tenten glanced over her shoulder at young teen, puzzled. "Find something?"_

_Hinata nodded only once, but didn't say anything else. She turned to the right and Tenten followed, wondering what the Hyuuga must have seen to be spooked so badly._

_After a minute or so of running, the two girls reached their destination._

_Tenten froze, her eyes widening in horror. In front of her lay someone who she knew as Neji Hyuuga, except this was not how she remembered him. The Neji she knew didn't have a huge gaping hole straight through his chest. Nor was he ever knocked out from a fight._

_Tenten rushed to Neji's side, kneeling down and holding back tears that she knew would soon fall._

_Hinata knelt down beside Tenten and checked Neji for vitals. Her eyes squeezed shut as she searched for a pulse. "He's still alive," she managed to squeak out after finding a slow, but strong pulse._

_Tenten let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. "Let's get him back to Konoha."_

_Hinata nodded and helped Tenten pick Neji up. They positioned him on Tenten's back so she was carrying him piggyback style. If Neji were awake, Tenten would have been embarrassed, but in this case, she was too worried for silly feelings like that._

_The two kunoichi got back to Konoha in one hour, which is unusually fast considering they were three hours of walking time away._

_They immediately headed to the hospital. Once there, they secured him a room and called upon the best doctors to treat him…_

_Flashback Over_

That was eighteen hours ago. Eighteen hours and they are still operating on Neji, trying desperately to close up the hole in his chest. Many people had been in and out of the room, but now, at noon the next day, only Tenten remains. She drops her hands from her head and gets up from the bench, stretching out her stiff muscles.

She slowly walks over to the operating door under the red hospital light. She stares at the door, wishing she could see through it, wishing that she could help Neji.

A large thud sounds behind her, and Tenten spins around, on guard.

She is greeted with a pineapple head, it is none other than Shikamaru. "I just got back," he walks over to her in a few long strides. "How is he?"

Tenten sits back down onto the bench with a sigh, "I don't know, they have been in there for a long time."

Shikamaru studies her with his genius eyes, "Have you been here the whole time?" Tenten nods.

Shikamaru sighs, it is his fault that he put this girl through so much pain, "You should go get something to eat," he says softly.

Tenten has no more fight left in her, so she nods and stands up. She leaves the room slowly, like she thinks something will change in the next few seconds.

Nothing does, and Tenten is gone, off to get some food.

Shikamaru plops down onto one of the benches, waiting out his time.

After a few minutes, the hospital light flicks off. Shikamaru glances over at it, wondering what could have happened.

A nurse pokes her head outside, "Neji is stable."

Shikamaru's face breaks into a smile, "That's great, is he conscious."

The nurse nods, "Yes, he wants to see someone named Tenten."

"Did I just hear my name?" A voice sounds as the door leading into the room slides open.

It is Tenten, nibbling on a sandwich, looking more alive than she has in the past eighteen hours.

"Yea, Neji is awake," Shikamaru says calmly, watching Tenten for her reaction.

Tenten takes a moment to process this, then smiles widely.

The nurse beckons for Tenten to follow her and she does willingly.

The room is large, and machines are spread everywhere. Compared to the rest of the room, Neji looks so small, so weak.

Neji is sitting up in his bed and staring at her, like he is memorizing her face in case he needs to recall it later.

"Hi," Tenten says, almost shyly.

"Hn," Neji grunts and looks down at his lap.

Tenten sits down on a small space of Neji's bed, and the two share a moment of silence.

Then the silence is broken…

"You idiot! Do you know how worried I was? I thought you were going to die!"

Neji keeps his gaze down in his lap as he takes the tongue-lashing.

"I'm sorry," he mumbles quietly.

Tenten freezes, "What did you just say?" she asks.

Neji raises his voice a little, "I'm sorry. Next time… I'll be stronger. I won't make you worry again."

Tenten smiles and gingerly places her hand on top of his own, "Good, I don't think I could handle much more of this."

Neji intertwines his fingers with hers, realizing for the first time that he may love this girl.

She glances down at their hands, surprised, before glancing up and making eye contact with the male Hyuuga.

After a few moments, Neji feels a sort of invisible pull tugging him closer to Tenten.

Then, the moment shatters. A cough comes from the corner of the room, where the very embarrassed nurse is blushing red at the cute moment in front of her.

Tenten's eyes widen and she jumps off of the bed, realizing how close she was to Neji.

"I.. I'll see you later Neji." She says nervously before quickly exiting.

Neji follows her with his gaze as she exits, the corners of his lips curling up in a smile.

For now, they remain friends, but who knows what the future will hold.

NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen NejiTen

There we go, hope you all enjoy.

Please review, I haven't written a Naruto story in quite some time.


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